Splexit: Explaining 0-Colour Start
'ey. Myrmiredon here. Head Dev of Blox Cards. You might've noticed that all of your coloured icons have disappeared when you start a match. Normally, when an update happens, I explain what and why these changes have been made in the discord server. However, this update is a special change that radically alters the game. I want to make what's going on clear for as many people as possible. If you're just here for the changelog, it's at the bottom of this page. Currently, Blox Cards underneath a four-week-long public test. From 3/30/19 to 4/27/19, we'll be testing an experimental change to the game where we start with 0 coloured icons - only four white. It has shown extreme promise in private tests as to fixing several problems us devs have had with this game. If this change works as intended, we will keep this change. It's been quite emotive for some people, and this page is explaining what's going on. What problems are 0-colour start trying to fix? Problem 1: The Splashing Blox Cards is a card game. Card games tend to be more fun the more variety of cards see play. One of the tools we use to increase card variety is to separate them into four colours: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. This stops all the best cards being played in one deck. In addition, more powerful cards cost more. Altering the cost of a card is the best tool we have to balance and design the game, and it's very important that that tool is kept useful. In the old system, we started with two of every coloured icon. This led to a technique known as "splashing"; playing a small amount of off-colour cards in your deck. Because you start with two of every icon, these small off-colour cards are essentially free, which leads to a whole host of problems. Imagine that I showed you a card that costed NNMM - two of one colour, and two of another, such as JavierCollin88Poppin. It would be intuitive to think that this should be stronger than a card that costs just NN - two of a given colour. Thanks to splashing, this isn't true - in a deck that doesn't play red or yellow icons, JavierCollin costs nothing. Because JavierCollin simultaneously costs 0 and 4 icons, it becomes very difficult to give him appropriate stats - If we balance him around the fact that he costs 4 icons, green and blue decks can play him for free as a huge beater. If we balance him around the fact that he costs 0 icons, then the red/yellow decks he's intended to be played in can't use him. Splashing also means that powerful low-cost cards can be played in any deck. Arte71 is a very powerful, yet balanced card at WWBB in blue decks, but in non-blue decks you spend WW for a 300/300 that also has one of the strongest effects in the entire game. As a result, Arte has had to cost three blue and is a less fun or powerful card because of it. The most extreme example is Clockwork. Clockwork costs 10 icons, but can be played as if he only costed four - He sees the most use in monoblue. How do you begin to balance that appropriately? The icon system in Blox Cards heavily incentivises playing one colour. As a result, we place in tools that enable two-colour play (such as Mickymack) and we also put in rewards for playing lots of colours (such as Satyr Firedancer). Splashing makes multicolour play harder because these tools have to be severely weakened in power so that off-colour decks can't abuse them. As a result, monocolour dominates. Problem 2: The Speed One of the barometers we use for how healthy the game is is how much you need to have a boardstate on the first turn. Can you take a turn off to play support cards like an acolyte? 2-colour decks, control decks, and archetype decks tend to be slower than the average midrange/goodstuff deck, and those decks need time to set up their own board. Under the old splashing system, so many cards were splashable that you had incredibly explosive turn-1 starts, taking full advantage of your splashes. You were forced to answer this on the first turn or immediately lose. The hope is that, by taking splashes out of the game, we severely cripple the ability of decks to play on the first turn without discarding, allowing these slower decks to have a fighting chance. Q&A I'm going to address some likely criticisms here. As a game designer, your feedback is very important. "Those multicoloured decks needed those two icons to begin with. Now I can't play multicolour." It is true that this update punishes multicolour decks by removing their ability to start the game on two icons. Rainbow decks in particular struggle immensely. However, thanks to splashing being gone, we're now allowed to freely push cheap multicoloured cards. Check the change log for more details. "Won't this just make monowhite really powerful?" Yes. If nothing was changed, monowhite would become a highly dominant deck. This was anticipated; We've chucked coloured icons onto the deck's largest hitters, forcing players who want to use monowhite to build a dedicated colour base. "Won't this break the tutorial/AIs?" Yes. Because this is a two-week-long test, we have decided that fixing the tutorial and the AI is too much work for not enough gain. It's the number one priority should this test become a permanent staple; please do not let it cloud your opinion. "You broke my deck!" During private tests, we've found that after turn five, most decks operate the exact same. The ones that don't are ones that require a splashed card (Skeleton Armada control) and degenerate rainbow decks that exploit how splashing works in the first place. If you feel your deck is a broke from this, swap out 2-4 cards for all-white icon gen. It should fix itself naturally. "Now I have to play tons of white-costing cards!" Under the old system, many cards have single icon costs tacked onto them in order to make them icon neutral. They don't "net" an icon without surviving a full turn. We're looking into this; these cards should be a lot safer if they cost all-white now, although they may take a small nerf in exchange for being castable on the first turn. The Vote https://forms.gle/fsD5iSxtYK2eEkNm6 It's time. Sorry for the wait; There just wasn't enough data to make sure Splexit was the right call two weeks in because the game hadn't settled yet. The game's settled now - I'll like to know your opinion. Edit: Splexit was voted to stay permanent. The Changelog And finally, the half of you have been waiting for. These changes assume Splexit stays. If it is removed, these changes are gone. If you want any kept, contact me. Closed= |-|30/3/19= Bloxikin Horde Coloured icon costs removed. Now requires a non-archetyped rare. Wowwow2211 +50/+50 (To 600/600) MegaSmiley Now triggers OnEnd. Clockwork Is now a 1200/1200. Great Lord Egotist Now generates a blue icon and a green icon at the end of your turns. Greygnarl Summonly only if you control 4 or more acolytes -> 3 or more acolytes. Grimclaw The Unholy Removed coloured icons from cost. HatHelper Removed coloured icons from cost. Rukiryo Removed coloured icons except green from cost. BerskererPredator450 Removed yellow icon from cost. SirAdurite Removed blue icons from cost. LordVasco Removed blue icons from cost. Mrawesomecarter Removed blue icons from cost. +0/+100. Crazyblox Removed non-red coloured icons from cost. Delirious Ooze Now doesn't remove green icons per effect. XxFreezerFlamesxX Is now an 800/800. zKevin Removed yellow icons from cost. Swapped Stats - is now 700/400. AllStarBren Now generates a yellow icon and a green icon onattack. Shard Master Now costs white. Costs 1 red icon less (to RRGGBBYY). Now has haste. MUTO2014 +100/100 (to 600/600). Insane Isaac Now costs WWWWYR. Now deals 100 damage to the owner instead of 2000. Razikai's Exploration Now summons four Otubs (up from two). Bearded Captain Effect rework: "Whenever you cast a fighter, a target fighter loses 150 power." Green icon removed from cost, health reduced to 400 (from 700), depower reduced to 400 (from 500) PurpleBoy329 Removed green icon from cost. Great Paraselene Sage Removed yellow icon removal from effect. +300/+300 (To 1500/1500) Consume Dream Now reduces the power of enemy fighters by 300 (From 200). Luckymaxer Now a 500/400 (From 200/200). Mechanical spiders now have this effect: "Whenever LuckyMaxer dies, draw a card and lose 1 blue and 1 yellow icons. This effect can cause negative icons." MrEyeso Now an 800/500. Hyp3rdeath Removed red icons from cost. Materking Is now a 600/600. Effect change: "At the end of your turns, all enemy fighters lose 100 health and power. Then all blue fighters gain 100 health and all green fighters gain 100 power." Owen0202 Removed blue icon from cost. Sharksie Now locks for 3 turns. Skeleton Armada Now increases health and power by 400 (From 300). Erik.Cassel Removed yellow icon from cost. Accursed Gate Now makes your opponent lose 3 white icons (from 2). HyperBlue Did you know this card was broken? I fixed it. (Now sets locks to 2 instead of adding locks.) Gangmanstyle556 Reworked effect: "Whenever you cast an Alar Fighter, generate a green icon and a red icon. This card can't generate icons naturally." Fancy Arachnid Removed yellow cost from the effect. LovecraftWizard +200/+200 (From 400/400) Creepy Toy Completely reworked: YY 400/300 All enemy fighters lose 100 health and power, then all non-yellow fighters gain 100 health and power. YotamTiti 600/400 (From 400/600) Now also generates a red icon and deals 200 damage to you when this card triggers. Satyr Firemaster Now inflicts 350 damage (from 100.) Now doesn't lose blue icons. AII_Duck +200 power (Now 900/900). Widgeon Fixed a typo in its effect. Thanksgiving Feast Now increases power by 600 (from 300.) Now ends the turn. Divine_Pengu Removed the blue icon cost. Matt_Dusek Doubled burn damage (from 500.) Now can't be swapped. Telamon Now costs 8x RBGYW. Is now an 8000/8000. Changed Effect: "Whenever you cast an action or terrain spell, end the turn." Kmansong2 Now has a green icon in its cost. RachelDubs Now has a yellow icon in its cost. WishNite Now has a red icon in its cost. BlueTaslem Now has a blue icon in its cost. Godlysinha Reworked effect: Set all of your icons to 1. Doomed Adventurer, Tootso, Wrath of Azure, Scare & Crow Is now 500/500 (From 400/400) Now costs NNN. TheInnovative Now a 500/500. Now generates 5 icons instead of setting them. Now costs RGBY. SolarCrane, Nexx Now costs WWWWWWWN. SimpleBeings Replaced effect: "Return all yellow fighters to their owner's hands." Tarfful Replaced effect: "Return all blue fighters to their owner's hands." PEEPSTERS Now requires a doge. Shamrock Doge Now a 150/150 (From 200/200). Toy Truck, Toy Teeth, Toy Plane Now locks for three turns (from two). Ultra Beseecher Now ends the turn. Happy Clown, Treasured Unicorn, DJ Kangaroo, BoomAtack (weird token), JavierCollin88Poppin, MrMaxi23 Now part of the two-colour cycle: 600/500 NNMM Colour: N At the end of your turns, generate M. |-|9/4/19= TheChakraTree now costs WYY. Qdhxx now costs WYYYR. The Piece Breaker is reworked. Plushie Panda is now a 200/200, buffs a target fighter by 200/200. Animallogic now triggers OnAttackDestroy instead of OnAttack. Hallow's Treats now destroys at 300 health or less. DrTrayBlox now costs WWWBBBGGG. Korblox Deathkeeper now doesn't require a Korblox. lando64000 is now 800/800, locks for 8 turns. Rockybow now costs WWWWRRRR. SlingshotJunkie is reworked. Beast Within is reworked. NearmissTFW's trigger changed to OnLockIncrease, now only draws one card, stats are now 1300/400 Reporter Tracy is now an 800/800. maplestick now costs WWWYYYY, is statted 1000/500 and is a Rare. Uberubert is reworked. VoxTrigati now has old MesouricPhantom976's effect. Godlysinha now sets icons to 0, stats changed to 500/500. Noxious Gas is reworked. Grey Goo Scenario now hurts Non-Morphic fighters only. Gooplast now requires a Goo-related fighter, lowers power by 600 and locks for 3 turns. Goo Golem now requires a goo-related fighter, health increased to 1500. Toxic Goo now costs WW, end of turn puts a Morphic Goo into hand, can't generate icons. Mad Scientist now also puts a Morphic Goo into your hand. Ghoost is reworked. Destruction5033 is reworked. Life Potion now only heals for 600. |-|13/4/19= Visleaf: Now costs WWYG. Pumpkin Carver: Now costs WWWW. Latchie: Now generates a green icon. Now statted 500/400. SmashDude88: Now statted 500/400. Hallow, the Sugarlord: Now ends the turn. Wolven Blitz: Now requires 3 lycanthropes in play. It that was Silenced: Third level now triggers OnAttackDestroy. Arte71: Now costs WWBB. Caone: Now part of the morphic archetype. Destruction5033: Now costs BBBRGY. Nikilis: Now a 350/350. Blizaki: Now statted 4000/0. Shirozaru: Now costs x6BG instead of x4WBRGY. Lilly_S: Now an Uncommon. Category:Community